The URGE concept car from Nissan North America Inc. includes an Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system that allows drivers, when parked, to play "Project Gotham Racing 3" (PGR 3) using the car's steering wheel, gas pedal and brake pedal while viewing the game--a trip through photo-realistic locations--on a seven-inch flip-down LCD screen. The URGE will be on display at the 2006 North American International Auto Show.
Bruce Campbell, vice president of design at Nissan Design America, where the URGE originated, said a majority of the 2,000 echo boomers (born within an approximate range from 1977 and 1994 and also known as Generation Y) surveyed by Nissan said that technology and gaming are among the most important attributes in their first car. "Xbox 360 offered the latest in technology and was already a favorite among this audience," he said.
Campbell said a Nissan URGE driver can, for example, maneuver through the streets of New York, park the car fire up the Xbox 360, “and then race virtually through the same streets using the same steering wheel, gas pedal and brake pedal – blurring fantasy and reality in a way that the automotive world has never before seen.”